


Arrangement 1 (during series)

by lalaietha



Series: Ten Thousand Things [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: During Series, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-04-06
Updated: 2011-04-06
Packaged: 2017-10-17 16:44:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/178891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalaietha/pseuds/lalaietha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An assortment of ficlets set at various points during the series; may be added to as appropriate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. quiet dissident (original characters)

Xiao-wei put a finger to her lips, and pointed to the space underneath the folded bundles of laundry. The earthbender-soldier's eyes widened, and he nodded rapidly, before ushering the children - probably his, but it was hard to tell when the place was in such chaos - under them before sliding in himself. A girl and a boy, Xiao-wei thought, but she wasn't sure.

She got up, put a new bundle in front of where they hid, and took a deep breath so that she could control her bending precisely: the fire under the kettles of water, full of the clothes she had yet to wash, sprang up higher so that the kettles boiled over _just enough_ that between steam and smoke it was difficult to see; then she fussed with them until hands beat on her door.

Xiao-wei dried her hands and opened the door, to be confronted by Captain Haku, frowning under his mustaches. "Stand aside," he said. "We have to search the building."

Xiao-wei did not stand aside. She looked him up and down, pointedly eyeing his muddy boots and spattered armour, and scowled her most ferocious scowl. "Like ash you do," she retorted, fiercely. She had a reputation for being a difficult woman. This was why she cultivated it - well, a species of why. "You think I'm going to let you tramp around here and muck up my clean laundry? What, do you think I'm hiding a spy in my kettles?"

"Woman," the captain started to growl, and she poked him in the chest.

"Don't you 'woman' me," she said. "The _nerve_ of you. The insult! After all my care - after everything I've done for you and your garrison, and for _free_ I might add, you come in here and insult me by implying I'm a traitor and want to _mess up my work._ Would _you_ like to tell the General why I had to rewash his underthings?"

The last was just her grousing; the important part of that was bridling at the insult, reminding them of their implied debt to her. Haku wasn't a bad man, precisely. Just an officious one, and one who didn't stop to question the word of authority. He flushed. "I have orders - "

"Oh for goodness sake," snapped Xiao-wei. "Come back when you're clean, if you have to! Who are you looking for, anyway? You don't actually think there's a spy here, do you?" She let her scowl shift to a worried frown.

"Well, we have a . . . situation," Haku said. He had not, as yet, tried to get in. "There's a renegade earthbender and he might have kidnapped some kids."

"Well he's not in here," Xiao-wei said, letting her eyes widen. "I've been in all day, trying to get that order ready for the General's dinner with the Marshall, haven't heard a thing. Listen, I'm serious - if you come in here now, I'll have to redo the whole thing. Go and get cleaned up and then you can search so you're not disobeying orders - in the mean time, tell me what this renegade looks like, and I'll scream if I see him."

It worked: a short description she didn't pay attention to later, and Haku gratefully left her doorway. She locked the door. That wasn't unusual, either: she was known to be a suspicious baggage.

"Alright," she said, to the bundles. "Get out here and change your clothes. What were you thinking? You stick out like a scream in a crowded market."


	2. homesick (Sokka, Katara)

You'd think with all the things that have happened to them, all the stuff that _keeps_ happening to them, that they wouldn't have time to be homesick. That there wouldn't be time to miss Gran-gran's quiet humming as she mended things, or cooked things, or sorted things, or to miss the calls of the kids outside playing in the snow. Or even to miss the bickering between the grown-up women, who always came in to ask Gran-gran's opinion or demand that she fix it.

Sokka wishes that were true. He wishes that all the things that keep happening really _did_ drive out the homesickness. But they totally don't.

"I miss Gran-gran," Katara says, quietly, arms around her knees, staring at the fire. Aang went to get some water, although since he took Momo with him, it's entirely possible that he'll get distracted and come back with three species of rare flowers instead. The kid's like that.

His sister's voice surprises Sokka a little bit. He's been trying not to bring it up, since he's been pretty sure that mentioning the stuff he was missing would somehow translate in his sister's occasionally special brain to some kind of criticism of _her_ for getting them into this in the first place. Which it wasn't. She totally did get them into it, but it was the right thing to do, so it wouldn't be _criticism._

He tries to make light of it. "I miss proper _food_ ," he says, and Katara rolls her eyes at him.

"I wonder what she's doing. Gran-gran, I mean. Do you think she misses us?" Then she shakes her head. "Kind of a stupid question, I guess."

"Yeah, kinda," Sokka agrees, and then, at her glare, demands, "What? You said it, not me."

Katara rolls her eyes. Then she stares pensively at the fire again. "How long do you think it'll be before we see home again?" she asks. It's a question Sokka's been trying not to think about, but trust a girl to come up with it, and he sighs.

Before he can answer, though, there's a rustling of leaves and Aang alighting in the circle of firelight with a triumphant, "Hey _guys_! Check this out! It's an Incandescent monkey-spider! Wow, these are super rare!"

He does, however, also have the skin full of water. So that's okay.


	3. preferred child (Ozai, Azula)

His daughter reminds him of the best in his wife, with all the weakness and softness burned away. With all of the skill, care, strength, beauty and cunning distilled into the body and mind of a child, ready to mould. He sees in her face, hears in her voice, and knows in her speech everything about his wife that he misses, and nothing that reminds him of what he was so glad to be rid of.

She more than makes up for the disappointment of his son, her opposite in every respect. If he did not know Ursa as he does, he would suspect that only Azula was truly his child. But then: his father gave rise to Iroh, as well. These things happen.

His daughter's poise, as she comes before him, is perfect, and the echo of his missing wife is in the grace with which his daughter bows, waiting for his will. _His_ , and his alone, as her father and her Fire Lord, all pollution removed.

He should have done this months ago, when Zhao, the fool, had first brought him news of the Avatar's return.


	4. currents (Katara)

When she finally figured out that it worked best if she stopped trying so hard, it was like the click the moment that a tool handle snapped into its place along the blade, and you knew you could lash it on tight.

It was obvious, when you thought about it. So obvious that it wasn't on any scrolls or in the great legends, and on the one hand it made sense (beyond the whole Avatar thing) that Aang would get it first, and on the other it also made sense that he couldn't help _her_ with it.

He moved to controlling water from the softer, easier currents of the air. Moving water was harder, probably, but still the same idea; on the other hand, airbending was so natural for him that he probably didn't think about it at all.

Besides, what he did in the air sure _looked_ more abrupt and more controlled. Water didn't like being controlled. It liked moving on its own. And you had to learn to move with it _first_ , before you could convince it that it wanted to go where _you_ wanted it.

You had to _be_ water. Had to feel what it was like to stretch yourself all over, to feel gravity and the pull of the moon so far away, so strong it could move whole oceans and yet so soft, so subtle that humans couldn't feel it. You had to be so in tune that you understood how the ripples on the surface came from the deep currents underneath, currents that were there even in the stillest of water. And you had to be part of that.

Once you were _part_ of it, then - oh then.

After that, everything was like a boat running on the fastest stream.


	5. opposite number (Toph)

Twinkletoes frustrated her. Not just because he didn't _get_ it, although that was annoying enough, but because every time she waited, listening to him struggle with the ideas, she got stuck thinking about what it would be like for an earthbending-born Avatar to have to learn airbending, and the idea actually made her skin crawl.

Made her want to reach down and put her hands on the ground along with her feet, and maybe her knees. To feel the earth with all of its deep, cool endlessness, reaching up into her, connecting her with the whole damn world, making it so there wasn't anything she couldn't do.

Made her want caves and her teachers, and to be a little bit resentful: of _course_ the rest of them would find the Lover's Caves and meet those badgermoles _before_ they met her. And of course, it would be completely out of the question to go back. Just to look.

After the war was over, she was damn well going there herself.

For the moment, while Twinkletoes flailed around like a leaf that couldn't figure out what it was doing with the wind, when it was supposed to be _on the ground_ , Toph let herself fall backwards and sprawl out on her back, limbs out from her body. Everything came back to earth, really. It kept the fire at the center of the world from burning everything, and let the fire normal people used burn; it was over and underneath water, and it gave air a reason to exist. It was always moving; it was always alive. Some people were just too dumb to see it, too used to looking at quick-moving, short-lived things that they couldn't feel the whole world under their own feet.

And then they were terrified and amazed when the rockslide killed them.

After a few minutes, Aang's voice told her he thought he had it; the way his feet felt on the ground a few meters away told her that he didn't have it at all. She pressed down just a little bit with one hand, felt the dry dirt crumble and give under her fingers. Felt the whole world notice her, and move where she wanted it.

The rockspur that erupted under his feet sent Twinkletoes flying. Toph yelled, "Try again!"


	6. after dinner conversation (Piandao, Paku)

There was something ironic about revisiting true contentment on the eve of the end of the world, but Piandao had been Fire Nation and White Lotus for long enough that he was at home with the tensions of irony within himself and in the world outside. The thought was more pessimistic than he really was, in any case: he himself occupied a middle ground of thought, between Iroh's steadfast belief and Jeong-Jeong's stubborn and extreme cynicism.

"If you really think there's no chance," Paku had demanded not two hours ago, "why are you here?"

"Because I'm a fool for lost causes," Jeong-Jeong had replied, "and I am still a firebender: I'd rather go out fighting." And the scowl he wore was ferocious and defensive, and pulled his scars more than a little askew.

He was a troubled man, these days. Piandao had caught the quick look of compassion Iroh had given the other firebender, but it had been gone by the time the Grand Lotus drew the conversation back to issues of tactics and how to fit them into strategy overall.

For himself, Piandao felt there was a chance. It was a slim one, and put far too much weight on children far too young to be expected to bear it, but it was there, and he would strike out for it. And hope to survive, because even if they won, those children would need arms to lean on in the days to come.

But it was _good_ to be here, in ways he had missed, had tried not to think about missing. Good to feel his world expand beyond meditation, sword-smithing, and practice. Good to remember that the White Lotus was more than an idea, or even a passing chain of thoughts and beliefs; good to remember it contained people, people he respected and whose company he enjoyed and benefitted from.

Even when they were cantankerous old men.

Paku joined him, as he sat outside his tent after dinner, cup of tea in hand. Piandao poured another cup and offered it without bothering to ask, as Paku settled himself on a rock, rather than on the ground.

Piandao felt his mouth turn up just a little bit: if he was honest with himself, it was also good not to be the oldest man here, to remind himself that he had years yet in his life and in his art. It was easy to forget, with the endless parade of boys and young men, all young enough to be his sons. Easy to begin to feel that the world was running out of time, and there was nothing left to do.

"So," Paku said, as he was settled. "I hear you've met my favourite student and her brother."

The wording made Piandao reflect, and reflecting almost made him laugh aloud (and very, very loud) as the image of Sokka and the old waterbending master sharing the same room spread itself out in his head, like a painting.


End file.
